We were planning to go to see the fireworks this evening but due to few things, we decided to stay home and watch it from TV. Weather in Seattle is a bit murky today. I barely could breath well when we had late lunch at Bellevue’s Gyu-kaku. It is a strange air quality with tad of smoky smell. I just googled air quality for seattle area and saw it’s at 97 Air Quality Index (AQI) with main pollutant is Nitrogen Dioxide. What? Turns out combustion from fireworks may release Nitrogen Dioxide and Sufur Dioxide into the air. However, I’ve never had this at the level of where I have difficulty to breath.

Oh well, for those who don’t have respiratory problem like me, enjoy the beautiful fireworks show tonight everywhere you are in US (or from TV like us).

Admin

Fireworks picture is courtesy of https://picjumbo.com/colorful-fireworks-pyrotechnics-against-black-night-sky/. Photo is copyright of its respective owner.

When the news of Anthony Bourdain’s passing on June 8th, 2018, I was in disbelief. The news was so hard to accept. My mental anguish was so severe. We have been the big fans of him. And now we are left with his legacy. The culinary world was in deep mourning.

I still remember watching his Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” show circa 2005 – 2012 as well as Travel Channel’s “The Layover” from 2011 – 2013. If I remember correctly, it was one of his first season of that show. It made us really want to go travelling and try different kind of local foods, exploring places that we never could imagine before. His style and the way he told the experience was just simply unique. I am yet to find anyone who can match his.

There were some period of time when we briefly lost his show when he took position at CNN and started a new show called “Parts Unknown”. To be frank, we were surprised that he was no longer with Travel Channel. But then we found the same spirit of him with the new show. Unfortunately we decided to ditch the cable since 2013 after our son’s birth as we did not think we’d have time watching all those channels. We instead followed him using internet.

Now, after almost one month of his death, we are still in mourning. Watching his past shows brought a bit of joy as well as tears. Perhaps we can’t ever forget him. I just checked today the footprints of him on social networks and others. Unfortunately the www.anthonybourdain.com seems to be suspended already (but http://www.anthonybourdain.net/ seems to be online). His twitter and facebook are still there with his last postings.

Regardless of the circumstance of his death, we only can say thank you to him and forever in debt of his influences and legacies of his shows. We hope we can continue travelling and follow his culinary foot steps around the world. And please help prevent suicide. It may not be hard to spot any signs but when you do, please let them know that they are not alone and people can help. Life is precious.

Farewell, Anthony and thank you!

Admin

Note: featured photo of this post is shown here only to pay respect to Anthony Bourdain (not for commercial). Its trademark and copyright belong to its respective owners.

We just got back from our travel to Oahu, Hawaii recently (pardon for our lengthy absence from blogging, but we managed to post some photos from our trip to TravelMaga’s Instragram which you could check it out. We will try to post our stories and experience later). During our trip back to Seattle, I had a little incident: the cup of water that flight attendant gave to me was a bit much and it spilled onto right tip of my shirt and part of my jeans.

I tried not to panic since it was just water (no harm’s done). However, I could feel the wet feeling as the water was absorbed by the fabrics in my shirt and jeans. Not sure why but my brain told me to keep calm and just wait until it dries by itself. I was thinking that it may take hours to dry them. My guess was proven wrong!

It took only about 15 minutes to have my shirt completely dry and it took another 15 minutes for my jeans to dry. I was very surprised on how fast it got dry! I literally did nothing and was just try to calm myself but the wet sensation started to dissipate and then gone within minutes. Oh my God! I was mixed with joy and anguish. Joy because I got myself super fast dryness. Anguish because I did not know how dry my body had been during the air travels all this time. The dryness inside the airplane cabin during air travel can be easily ignored for quite a while since your attention could be on something else beside your own body (tons of distractions are available during the flights: TV, Children, Foods, etc).

Ever since that incident, I promised myself to drink enough water, not just random liquids, but water. Other drinks seem to make our body even “drier”. After drinking soft drinks, my thirst did not seem to be completely gone. Even making me to want to drink some more. Don’t let your body suffer from the dryness during air travel. Drink plenty of water!

After experiencing terrible glitch in TravelMaga’s original website last year, I had to salvage and to move it to the new hosting account. That put a dent in my original target of launching TravelMaga. I did not anticipate such thing upon doing soft-launching TravelMaga. Initially I was targeting at least by November 2017 that we could launch TravelMaga. Our (sort of) unplanned third trip to Japan in November also contributed to additional delay. With all these, I decided to no longer delaying TravelMaga launch. With many of previous travel stories that have not yet been published, I will publish them in back-dated mode (meaning I will post them in future but will use past date of when such posting is supposed to occur approximately instead). For future travels, I will not do them in same mode but may publish them as is.

Many things have not been finished currently and readers may find some missing things from our TravelMaga website. I am currently not too satisfied with few major things, especially the Review sub-system that we have in our website. Tweaking them may take a while and at the same time, I don’t want it to be a reason for further delaying TravelMaga launch. You may find issue with our commenting system (we are using Disqus) but I have tested it and so far, it seems to be working. With all of my work schedule (and others), I may find it difficult to find free time to reply and/or to moderate the comments. You may also find some postings are using few different gallery sub-systems. Hopefully I will finalize them and iron out other issues one by one.

I learnt the hard way that doing blogging while travelling can be very difficult, so you may find some blogs were actually back-dated as they normally were written after we returned from the travel. We also tried our best protecting our website but based on the security logs, we found many attempts made by unknown sources to attack our website. We kindly asked for those who meant harm to us to rescind such activities. Please be considerate to others and let us know any feedbacks that you have. With all of these shortcomings, please pardon us for the inconveniences and be patience until they are addressed. In the meantime, please enjoy our TravelMaga site.

A very unique hotel that’s just located across JR Shin-Sapporo station. The hotel looked like something straight from Las Vegas boulevard. Its location in Shin-Sapporo is perfect for those folks who want to be still near to New Chitose airport but also still near to Sapporo city. With many shopping malls nearby, this hotel offers attractive features for people who make brief transit to this city and for tourists as well. In fact, we noticed that many pilots and aircrews from many different airlines make this hotel as their place to stay for their brief visit.

We came to this hotel straight from Otaru, as the last stop in our Hokkaido trip before heading back to Tokyo. It’s not difficult to find the hotel since we just simply follow the direction in JR Shin-Sapporo station. Despite of it was late March, weather at night can be colder than during noon. However the hotel’s unique exterior facade which welcomed us at that evening, made us felt warmer despite of the cold air.

As we walked closer to the hotel’s entrance, we could see the chapel’s exterior on the right side of the hotel which has greenish roof with white and stone grey wall colors. There were some snows near the side entrance of the hotel but all parking lots and nearby roads were pretty much clean from snow/ice (which was quite a contrast than what we saw at some roads in Otaru and Sapporo downtown that we still could see many of them were covered by snow and ice at that time).

The hotel’s lobby area was quite big. There were plenty of seatings in the middle of lobby, hence guests can wait while sitting in lobby (surprisingly we found some other hotels don’t think such seating facility is important for the guests). Check-in process was quite brief and standard. The receptionist responded well with our requests for the need of large group and provided a very good service to us. One thing that I do notice was those folks who work at front desk were working very late (it was almost midnight) but we were surprised to still see them in the morning! Initially we thought they were part of the evening/morning shift but they were there for the rest of the day since next morning too. They didn’t look tired or anything that indicated they needed rest. We admire their dedication to their job! Especially to one young lady there whom never ran out of her smile. She deserves a gold medal.

Using one of the many elevators to go up, our rooms were at the top level. We could see the surrounding Shin-Sapporo area very clearly. The rooms were quite big. We started to really really like the big rooms trend in the hotels that we stayed during our trip in Hokkaido. The price is not much different than hotels with similar star ratings in Tokyo area. Some of them were even cheaper. During weekends, we could see price increase, but they weren’t as much as price increase that we usually see in Tokyo area’s hotels. The hotel has more than 500 rooms with 32 floors, so it’s considered as quite big in Shin-Sapporo area, the second city center of Sapporo.

The rooms that we got were non-smoking rooms and they were clean and not smelly. Room amenities were standard and Wi-fi was fast enough. The beds were quite comfortable. As usual, room’s central AC was only heater mode during cold seasons. We had to use portable AC/humidier. I didn’t get much to watch TV channels since it was already very late night and we were very tired. I did see they have plenty Japanese television channels to choose from. Unfortunately at this time, I didn’t have time to enjoy the free onsen facility at this hotel because it was already late night and tomorrow we have to catch train to go back to Tokyo.

Next morning, we got up pretty early, considering we came late last night. The anticipated buffet style breakfast at Cafe Dom was already full of hungry guests. Interestingly, the restaurant was in open Atrium area near the chapel. The chapel itself was quite an attraction. It looked like a mini version of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, France. The restaurant serves Western-style and Japanese-style breakfasts with ingredients from Hokkaido’s local produce. The pastries were quite a feat. We really enjoyed that morning breakfast in the Atrium, while looking at the beauty of the chapel’s facade and decorations. This hotel is truly unique and we never had seen things like this anywhere else in Japan so far. The Cafe apparently serves coffee with “Toarco Toraja” brand. The name seems familiar to the ear of Indonesian folks in our team, as it reminds them about a place called Toraja in South Sulawesi.

Upon checkout time at 11AM, we asked the concierge to store our luggages while we took a stroll in Sapporo for lunch. During the checkout time, we saw many pilots and airplane attendants were lining up to wait for their shuttle to go to the airport. It seems this hotel is very popular for those airplane crews due to its proximity with the airport. After lunch, we returned to the hotel, did a little shopping a little bit at the bakery and shop near the hotel’s lobby area before heading to JR Shin-Sapporo to catch our train to Hakodate and from there, we’ll take Hayabusa Shinkansen to go back to Tokyo. Our stay in Hotel Emisia Shin-Sapporo was indeed memorable and satisfying. We will definitely choose to stay at this hotel again in future if we ever go to Shin-Sapporo area.

This is our review for the first hotel that we stayed during our trip to Hokkaido last Spring 2017. The criteria for us to select the first hotel in Sapporo was to be close to main tourist attraction area in downtown Sapporo. Prior to this selection, we chose APA Hotel and Resort Sapporo. However we changed that after we realized that it was located a bit far than what we needed. If not due to location requirement, we would have stayed at APA Hotel and Resort Sapporo as it is more economical for our big group. We ended up choosing Hotel MyStays Premier Sapporo Park since it’s quite close to Susukino area (but not too close since we don’t want to stay in crowded downtown area). Surely it was more expensive than our first choice, however our splurge was not for nothing. Hotel MyStays Premier Sapporo Park indeed delivered the service and quality that we were looking for within that extra budget. I found this hotel is unlike the regular budget hotel that MyStays hotel chain usually associated for. It seems this hotel which has the “MyStays Premier” brand, indicates it has higher class than the regular MyStays hotels.

On the everning of our arrival (we took train from Hakodate), we happened to go to the wrong hotel with almost the same name but turns out to be about one/two stations away in the other side of Sapporo Park. So be sure to know which subway station to go to from JR Sapporo station (please note that we came from that station, not JR Shin Sapporo). Some streets in Sapporo (especially not near city center) could be full of ice and snow during Winter and Spring (we went there during late March 2017). However from Subway station near the hotel to the hotel, we didn’t find any difficulties since the roads and walkways were mostly cleaned from snow and ice. It is always recommended to walk carefully during such seasons to avoid accidents due to slippery walking surface, despite of the roads are cleared or not.

Since the hotel is located at the corner of triangular shape of city block, guests can enter from front (west) or back (east side) or from north side. When we entered the hotel, we were greeted by hotel receptionist. He seemed to understand that we were already tired from our journey and immediately prepared everything for us. There was a big banner of TripAdvisor in the wall that indicated the hotel has good review rating from TripAdvisor site.

After we checked in, we went outside to find dinner at nearby Susukino area (I’ll post the story later). When we went back to our hotel, it was already late night. I decided to try the indoor hot spring/onsen facility in the hotel. I was wearing Yukata that hotel provided to guests in the room. I had to bring my own towel and the hotel room card key in order to enter the onsen facility. Perhaps it was already quite late at night, there was not many people in the big onsen. It was my first Onsen experience in Japan actually. Some people may have problems with going to Onsen (being naked in front of other folks while taking bath), however it is not a problem for me. Men and women side of Onsen are separated. The steam coming from the hot spring water filled the big room and there were few different hot springs that people can try. Of course, you have to clean up your body first using the plenty of individual bath stations (which I did quite enjoy it) before going to the hot springs. All of my body ache from the journey seemed to go away.

We did not realize it that it is common in Japan, especially at places with colder climate like in Sapporo, to have their room’s central Air Conditioner in Heater mode only. While the weather was super cold outside during winter, inside the room could be like sauna-hot when that central AC was turned on. We ended up turning it off and using the provided portable AC to have more comfortable room temperature instead. It took a while to figure it out but it was not difficult, despite we can’t read the writings in Japanese fluently. The room was quite spacious and the bed was comfortable. The room has unique design as it has the sofa to be made like a day bed and placed against the window. I could enjoy the night view of Sapporo city from the sofa while slurping my hot tea. The room seemed to have good insulation as it was very quiet and we barely could hear people outside walking in the hallway.

In the morning, we head to our breakfast. It was a buffet style breakfast. By buffet, they really spoiled the guests with so many choices. Frankly, it took me a while to decide how to start it. They pretty much has everything from Western to Japanese style foods. People seemed flocking the queue to get seafood stuffs. Fruits, while it could be very expensive in Japan, but it was plenty available here for breakfast. They also have special separate section in the corner for kids where they have foods tailored for kids (cakes, etc) as well as some toys and decorations for kids. The utensils and plates were also kids size. As expected from hotel with this caliber, the supervisors for dining area were always checking each section as well as guests tables. As soon as guest finishes their dishes, the server always pick the plates up right away.

When we finished our breakfast, we proceeded to check out and asked the concierge to keep our luggages while we were heading outside for lunch, shopping and sightseeing in Sapporo city. By the time when we got back, it was already afternoon. We got a chance to take some photos at the restaurant on first floor that had very nice interior as well as in front of some decorations in the hotel’s lobby. They have a good collection of local arts that were shown in the waiting area.

Since we only stayed for one night, we can’t review everything that this hotel has. Perhaps next time when we have a chance, we will try to cover more thoroughly. In overall, we were very satisfied with the service that this hotel provided. If there is an opportunity to come to Sapporo again, we would definitely choose this hotel again when possible.

This 3-star hotel is located in Chuo, near Osaka Castle area (hence the name). We only stayed for one night in Osaka and needed a basic hotel that’s located near major train stations in Osaka. We picked this hotel for few reasons. The location of this hotel is very conveniently near Temmabashi station (Keihan train), shopping centers. As a bonus, it’s just located in front of Okawa (O river) and within walking distance to Osaka-jo (Osaka castle). Also it’s not far from Umeda station, which was the meeting place with our tomodachi (friends) for dinner together. The other reason for staying at this hotel was they provide rooms with 4 beds! Also it has very reasonable prices.

We normally always choose newer built hotels that offer non-smoking rooms since we can’t stand staying in rooms that have smoking odors. Although this hotel is not brand-new, however it’s maintained very good condition and the non-smoking room that we stayed indeed was not smelly or having weird odor at all. Some of the interior inside the hotel in general needs some updates but it’s not our concern or a deal breaker for us. Also the room that we stayed was actually quite up-to-date and doesn’t feel like an old hotel.

Checkin time is 2PM, which is a life saver for folks who needed to get some rests after moving from other city and could use the room before starting their day trip again. Their checkout time is very generously at noon (most hotels we stayed have checkout time at 11AM, or even few of them were only 10AM!). Interestingly the hotel lobby is not on the first floor, so you have to use elevators to go up.

During our stay, we didn’t have a chance to try the breakfast so we can’t give any reviews about the food service. Before our trip, we had concern about people were giving some comments about rooms being small. However when we got here, the quadruple room that we stayed had reasonable size and could accommodate all of our big luggages and still plenty room for 4 of us moving around. Perhaps if compared to hotels in USA with comparable rating, it may be too small for certain people from there. However, to be fair, if compared to other hotels in Japan, this hotel has slightly better size.

The bed was comfortable enough but it was too soft for me who prefers firm bed. It was okay for other folks in our group however. The room amenities were pretty standard for Japanese hotels. The bathroom is also quite standard size with of course, bidet equipped toilet (we love it!). Our room has big windows where you can look at the river in front of the hotel as well as the park and tall buildings that are in Temmabashi area.

We enjoyed the evening during our stay by strolling the Okawa Temmabashi river cruise which we got the tickets at the base of the Keihan City Mall building where this hotel is located. The tree was full of lighting decorations at the nearby park gave the cruise an extra nice touch. With so many restaurants at the mall, people should not worry about where to get foods. However, since we already had dinner appointment at Umeda, we went there by taking train in the subway station underneath the building.

The next day, upon our checkout time, it was not too difficult to catch taxi as they were already lined up in front of the hotel. It only took us few minutes to go to Shin-Osaka station from this hotel. We will definitely stay at this hotel again if we want to explore Temmabashi area in future.

We happened to stay in this hotel by “accident”. It was due to our miscalculation, hence we missed the last Shinkansen train from Hiroshima to Kobe. One of the JR station officer helped us to book our Shinkansen for the early morning the next day and gave the list of hotels nearby the station. Despite of his kindness, the hotels nearby the JR Hiroshima station were either full or had sky-high prices. In our frantic search, I found one particular hotel in Hiroshima that I remember I had read about upon our planning time.

Initially before booking our flight to Japan, we thought we could spend at least one night in Hiroshima. However the other team members reminded us that they did not want to move to new hotel everyday (despite of wanting to visit Hiroshima). I was worried that we would not make it. My worry turned out to be true. As we missed the train to go back to JR Hiroshima station, we missed our last Shinkansen train! Luckily I was able to get rooms at Daiwa Roynet Hiroshima hotel with the help of Hotels.com from my iPhone (it was almost midnight). I redeemed one of my free night there. I actually felt very relieved that we were able to get the room, considering that day was actually a big holiday and most hotel rooms were fully booked.

Due to the “emergency” nature of our stay in this hotel, I can’t give much review since literally we only stayed for brief period of time (less than 7 hours) but I feel obligated to give the review anyway. We took taxi to go to Daiwa Roynet Hiroshima (spent about less than 1500 yen). Once there, we were greeted by one person (which happened to be the only person to handle the front desk at that time). He gave us a bag with extra towels and yukata. The hotel rooms were quite clean. For americans, perhaps they would think the room too small for their size, but to us, it’s comparable with many 3 stars hotels that we had been before. Actually I quite like the bed. It’s on the firm side and good for my back. The room amenities were quite complete. There is a small portable AC/humidifier that you could use since the room’s AC seems to be for heater mode only during this season.

After a hot shower, we were able to go to sleep, although only for brief period (about 5 hours) as we had to go back to JR Hiroshima station before 6AM. The receptionist gave us a morning wake up call as I ordered. The same person who helped us last night was still there. He told me that he already called taxi and it was waiting at the left side of the hotel. Since neither of us had luggage to carry (our luggage was still at Kobe!), we briefly departed the hotel. Before leaving, I told the receptionist guy that we owed much to him. I promised myself that I will go here again when we visit Hiroshima again in future.

We definitely agree with this hotel’s motto: It is indeed a no non-sense hotel!

A no nonsense hotel, located at the heart of Hiroshima, near Peace memorial museum and other major interests in Hiroshima. Can't go wrong with this if you need basic hotel but good service and amenities.

The B Kobe was among many hotels in Kobe that we reviewed before making decision. It won our selection due to its location and attractive price. The location is unbeatable since it’s right in Sannomiya district. The price was a winner too. If you were looking for a nice view, this hotel is not for you since it’s not a high rise building and right in the center of Kobe. I would recommend ANA Crowne Plaza Kobe for such venture. In fact, that hotel was our first selection until we decided to move closer to Sannomiya district instead of Shin-Kobe area.

To us, non-smoking rooms are our most important factor since we can’t stand smoking odor in the room. When we arrived there, we were glad that the non-smoking rooms that they gave us was indeed has no smoking odor or any other foul smells. The rooms were clean.

Interestingly this hotel’s lobby is in the second floor. You need to take the escalator to go up to the lobby. The first floor is occupied by restaurant and cafe. There are two small elevators for guest rooms, right next to the receptionist desk. At the lobby, guests can enjoy free coffee and Wifi.

In the room, there is Wifi too and the connection speed was quite fast. The single beds were quite comfy. Actually the beds are rather firm, which are good for my back. The bathroom is an interesting one. It has a long shape and the wall is in yellow greenish color. The smart bidet toilet will open the lid automatically if it detects your presence and close the lid when you move away from it. The shower peculiarly has a place where guest can sit down while taking shower. This will be very beneficial for elderly people, although it’s not particularly helpful for people with disabilities since you have to step up to the shower as it’s placed higher than the bathroom’s floor. There is no bath tub however, but it’s not a deal breaker since none of us would take bath tub on this trip (we’d rather go to Onsen or Sento for such pleasure). Travelling with kids can be rather convenient with this hotel when you find coin-operated washer-dryer machines facility in this hotel. Vending machines also can be found in most floors of this hotel.

Upon entering the hotel from the road side, there is a short wheelchair ramp to allow guests with wheelchairs and luggage to go upstairs. During certain days, this hotel can be full of tourist groups as tour buses dropped their passengers here rather frequently. We saw people coming from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia in big groups. I didn’t have opportunity to try the breakfast buffet in the morning but one of our team members tried the japanese-italian style buffet and she quite liked it, especially the breads. For us, having italian breakfast could be quite heavy.

To reach this hotel, we took subway from JR Shin-Kobe station to Sannomiya subway station (not JR Sannomiya station). Unfortunately our IC Cards (Pasmo, Suica) that we got from JR Station in Tokyo can’t be used here. They have different IC Cards. That gave us a lesson. However it didn’t make us worry since the subway cost was quite small. Later we learnt that for a small group of people, it’s better to take taxi, especially when you have to drag the luggage with you and not all station exits have elevators/escalators. From this hotel to JR Sannomiya station, it only costs us less than 1000 yen to take taxi.

There is a small shrine located near the hotel (right behind the Tokyu Hands store which is near the hotel as well). The Sannomiya subway station has multiple exits, so either read the sign carefully or ask the station officer for directions. Our west exit to the hotel didn’t have escalator/elevator so we instead took elevator at Tokyu Hands basement level floor to go up to the street level. For foods, you can walk around Sannomiya district as there are tons of restaurants and food courts available. For big shopping malls, they are located around JR Sannomiya station, which is can be reached by walking for about few minutes towards east direction. Hotel staffs are friendly and can be resourceful to ask around for places that you want to go. We definitely will stay in this hotel again if we want to explore Kobe, especially at Sannomiya district.

Right in Sannomiya district of Kobe. Most of attractions are within walking distance. Hotel shower has a place to sitdown while taking shower. Clean and quiet room. Good value for people who want to visit Kobe's Sannomiya.

Hotel Review - Comfort9

Hotel Review - Location9.5

Hotel Review - Service8.5

Hotel Review - Quality8.5

Hotel Review - Cleanliness9

Hotel Review - Value9.5

Hotel Review - Hotel Facilities8.5

Hotel Review - Room Amenities8.5

Hotel Review - Entertainment / Fun8

Hotel Review - Communication8.5

Reader Rating0 Votes0

Pros

Location is right in Sannomiya district. Easy access to anywhere. Walking distance to major attractions nearby.

Shower has a section where people can sit down while taking shower. Good for elderly people.

Room has good enough size with standard amenities.

Cons

Elevator and the room can be a bit small for large families with many big luggage.

Can be very crowded during tourist heavy season.

Lobby is not at the ground floor. Can be difficult to drag luggage to second floor. Escalator is only one person wide.

We chose this hotel as our base for our vacation since it’s quite near proximity to Disneyland and DisneySea theme parks (only few stops from JR Kaihin-Makuhari station). Previously we were considering for hotels that are in Maihama station’s vicinity (literally the gateway to the theme parks). However their price was quite high. While bigger rooms in APA Makuhari hotel’s central tower can be above $100 per night, the smaller rooms for two people were considerably priced (if you book the rooms sooner, the price can be very cheap). The ‘smaller rooms’ are actually slightly bigger than what we used to have when staying in Kawasaki or Kyoto. However, for family with many luggages and kids, we would recommend the bigger rooms.

It took about 30 – 40 minutes by Airport Limousine bus from Narita Airport to reach this hotel which only costs us 900 yen per person and 50% discount for kids under certain age. Be mindful that bus only operates during certain hours. As they may change at any time, please check with the Airport Limousine bus info desk near the entrance of the terminal. They will take your luggages and tag them with coupons that have numbers on them. It is extremely important to keep the coupons as they are needed to retrieve your luggages upon arrival at your destination hotel.

We had opportunity to review both smaller and bigger two bedrooms. While the size of the bed is only single bed, we were able to move the two beds side-by-side, hence it turned into something wider than queen-size bed. The bigger room (aka ‘Deluxe Twin Room’) that we got has a narrow passage where a walk-in closet on the right side was located and the bathroom was located on the left side, before entering the actual bedroom. For the price that we got, this room indeed was quite big for Japan’s hotel. The room was quite spacious, with big windows facing the coast line (we only got the room on 11th floor, so the view of coast line was a bit obstructed). The next stay with smaller ‘Standard Twin’ room was on 25th floor and had gorgeous view of the coast line. The Standard Twin room barely allowed us to put our 3 luggages on the side, next to the beds (that’s after shifting the bed to put them side-by-side).

When we arrived at the hotel, we had to actually go to the receptionist area that’s located at the east wing. There was a long line of people already in the queue for check-in. They had several checkin-counter opened, so it wasn’t long until our turn. The check-in process was automated via a touch-screen kiosk. The receptionist was guiding us with his somewhat limited English but we were able to understand, despite of few things that we weren’t sure of. We actually had to ask for APA club card to him. However, when we were asking about the benefits of APA club card, he had hard time to explain it to us. Since we were already tired from our long journey and it was already late night, we went to our rooms.

We found our rooms were clean and tidy. To our surprise, we found a big walk-in closet in our room! We put our luggages inside that walk-in closet. The toilet sink and mirror were placed outside next to the bathroom. Inside the bath room, as usual, a toilet with bidet, regular size bath tub and shower. There is a laundry line that you can pull out to hang your wet laundry (which is useful since the coin laundry machines on the 3rd floor seemed to take forever to dry our clothes). There was a small refrigerator (but cold enough to turn your bottled water to ice), a medium sized flat-panel TV with plenty channels (most of them are in Japanese language), safety box, and other standard hotel amenities. As APA hotel chain signature, they put two Origami Swans and two Kimono robes (Yukata) with APA brand on it. The sandals that they gave were too small for me but it’s fine for my wife’s size.

There were 6 elevators available in Central tower for guest hotel rooms and restaurants on the top floors. The 3 elevators on the right were faster ones as they do not stop on floors lower than 25th (except the first 3 floors). There were additional elevators that were special for the restaurant on the top floor. Using those elevators, you can see the outside view from the window while moving up and down.

Since we were hungry, we looked for any nearby shopping malls. We found that there was no shuttle bus going directly from the hotel to AEON mall which was close by. According to the concierge person, it may take about 30 minutes walking. She suggested to go to the JR Kaihin-Makuhari station which only took much shorter time and there will be shuttle bus that goes from the station to the mall. She pointed out that there is a bridge that we can use to walk across the street towards the station. From there, we found several shopping malls with plenty food courts and restaurants. We were able to visit few of them and tried several foods. Among them, our favorite is PLENA Makuhari. There was a Katsu-ya that sells really good Chicken Katsu.

During our 6 days stay at APA Hotel & Resort Tokyo Bay Makuhari, I was able to enjoy their Sento (Public bath) that was on the 4th floor for few times. It was very relaxing. There were coin-operated lockers provided in the entrance but I found there was also lockers with wearable key inside the changing room. You have to use your room key to get inside. So it’s important to place your key safely inside the locker. The fun fact that I found was they kept changing the men and women areas every day. So, make sure you enter the right one! You have to follow their rules, so be sure to read the signs. As usual, coin-operated vending machine is also available inside. There were also plenty bathing stations in the Sento. To dry your hair, you can use the hairdryer provided in the room next to changing room. In one occasion, I was startled when a cleaning lady entered the men’s changing room to pick up dirty towels and cleaning up the room. I felt uneasy when she was there but others seem to ignore her. The fact that the Sento remains open until 2AM is really the ultimate deal for me since usually we arrive really late at the hotel back from our day trip until almost midnight. After hot bath, I found another paradise in this hotel: two LAWSON Konbini (Convenience stores) on the 3rd and 1st floor. I usually bought midnight snacks, Japanese beers and Oden! Yes, they have Oden! The first time I ate Oden while drinking Japanese Beers, it was like in heaven.

In the morning, we went to LA VERANDA restaurant to claim our breakfast buffet coupons. The buffet was Continental, Chinese and Japanese style. My son’s favorite was their potato fries and Yakult (yes, strangely they have Yakult!). The yakult drink is very popular and easily be gone fast. The restaurant was in the right wing side and had a swimming pool outside (which we didn’t try since when we came, it was already cold weather). If I’m not mistaken, you have to pay small fee to use the swimming pool (not free) but I could be wrong. Tourist buses can be seen parked next to the Right wing building. There is a big bull statue near the LAWSON on Right wing’s1st floor that reminds me of the one at the Wall Street, NYC.

We were able to store our luggages in the hotel and went back 5 days later to collect them and resumed our stay in the hotel before our departure. In overall, we were quite satisfied with this hotel and really recommend it if you are visiting Makuhari and nearby areas. It is so far the best APA hotel that we ever stayed.

Hotel Review: APA Hotel & Resort Tokyo Bay Makuhari

Our Takeaways

A Makuhari's jewel. Its location, price, Sento (Public Bath)/Onsen, facilities are killer combination. Really recommended for family who are visiting Disneyland/DisneySea theme parks nearby. Tokyo station is only about half hour by rapid train service. Narita airport can be reached by Airport Limousine bus, taxi or train. Coast-facing rooms have awesome view of Tokyo Bay.

Hotel Review - Comfort8.5

Hotel Review - Location9

Hotel Review - Service9

Hotel Review - Quality8.5

Hotel Review - Cleanliness8.5

Hotel Review - Value9.5

Hotel Review - Hotel Facilities9.5

Hotel Review - Room Amenities9

Hotel Review - Entertainment / Fun9.5

Hotel Review - Communication9

Pros

Their Onsen is already enough justification to stay in this hotel.

Location is near Disney resorts, easy access to train and bus stations.

Very nice buffet style breakfast. Has two sections to handle during crowded morning breakfast time upon heavy tourist seasons.

Higher floor rooms have breathtaking view of the city and the bay.

Large receptionist area that can handle many guests, easy check-in and check-out.

Cons

Standard rooms can be too small for certain guests (However they are common in Japan's hotels with similar star rating).

Room can be very hot in morning when the morning sun hit the window, despite of already have windows blinds cover. Need to use portable AC to cool down the room.

Some portion of the top areas in the locker room in the onsen were quite dusty. Perhaps need some cleaning.